Electric vehicle and clean energy firm Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk said on Wednesday, 24 March, that people in the US can now buy a car from the company using Bitcoins. The option to pay with the popular cryptocurrency will be available to other countries later this year.
The company had announced its plans to start accepting Bitcoins over a month ago. Tesla has invested nearly $1.5 billion in Bitcoins.
One Bitcoin is currently worth a little over $56,000, which means people need to pay a little less than one coin to buy the entry-level Tesla.
The entry-level Tesla Model 3 Standard Range Plus has a starting price tag of $37,990. The Long Range starts at $46,990, and the top-of-the-line performance range begins at $54,990.
“Tesla is using only internal and open-source software and operates Bitcoin nodes directly. Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin and will not be converted to fiat currency,” he said.
The option to pay using the cryptocurrency now appears on the company’s US website. The customer will have the option of scanning a QR code or copying and pasting his/her bitcoin wallet address to initiate the payment.
According to Tesla’s Bitcoin payment terms and conditions, its vehicles will continue to be priced in US dollars.
Musk has also been sending tweets in support of Dogecoin, leading to a rise in the cryptocurrency’s value.
(This story has been published in an arrangement with IANS)
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